


Letter - My Summer So Far

by DixieDale



Series: The Life and Times of One Peter Newkirk [13]
Category: Clan O'Donnell - Fandom, Hogan's Heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 09:04:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14713163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DixieDale/pseuds/DixieDale
Summary: Letters from young Coura always enlivened the day for the men of Barracks 2, and the latest one was no exception.  It was full of many of the things you'd expect from a youngster her age, bits and pieces about her teachers and lessons, about a recent visit with her sisters, some about her sister's boyfriend.  There was a little about her upcoming school year and the teachers she'd hoped for, and a field trip she and her brother were going on.  There was a recounting of an outing she and the sisters and some friends had gone on, and quite a bit about Coura and her next oldest's sister's plans for the future.  Pretty basic stuff, you'd think.  Whoever would have thought it would endanger the barracks' coffee supply and almost make Newkirk swallow a lit cigarette??   Not to mention totally confusing one German guard named Schultze!





	Letter - My Summer So Far

**Author's Note:**

> To one and all, I apologize for the odd formatting; my iPad formatting doesn't travel so well, so I have to just do the best I can to make the separations between the letter, the guys' interactions and reactions, spoken words and thoughts. Hope it's not too difficult!

"Hogan, Olsen, Kinchloe, LeBeau, Newkirk, Carter" on and on Schultz called the names as he sorted through the letters in his hands. He always felt very badly when he came to the end of the letters before he came to the end of the names of the men in Barracks 2. Still, he knew those who got letters shared them with the others, so that was something anyway. He hung around, because he saw a particular envelope addressed to Carter, and he knew that letter should prove entertaining. Sometimes there were stories, even, and drawings. He hoped he didn't have to go do something before Carter read it out loud.

"Hey, guys, I got another letter from Coura!" Andrew J Carter yelled across the room. The others laughed and cheered; the letters from the not-so-little-girl had become a highlight of their mailcall routine. She had continued to use that childish voice for each letter, and sometimes the guys forgot that it wasn't so, not with her being Clan. Usually by the end of each letter, they'd been firmly reminded.

Newkirk winced; he was always a little apprehensive when Coura wrote. It wasn't like with Caeide, who had a gentle soothing tone to her letters, making for a letter to lay beside him in his bunk in the darkness, rereading it over and over in his mind, taking him to a place he'd never been or seen but could picture so clearly it was like he was standing there. No, Coura's letters were a little like Andrew's explosives, sometimes having unexpected results, and usually involving fireworks.

She'd been very young when he'd worked with Caeide, and he'd never met her; in thinking over her letters, he was thinking it was probably best he'd not been available for handling her Internship; he was pretty sure he'd have never survived it; his odds were probably better with Hogan and the guys, even taking into account the Germans. Still, he had to admit, the Barracks was a bit livelier when her letters arrived, so he settled back to listen when everyone else urged Carter to read it.

**  
From Coura to Andrew

Hi, Andrew:

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I got back from visiting Meg. My other sisters were there for part of the time; it's been quite awhile since we were all together in one place. It was just for a few days, before the start of our next to the last Practicums. It's been really busy, since Douglas and I have a Practicum field trip to get ready for, and I have to make sure I have everything in good order here at home before I leave. Mom always says, leave everything as if you are NOT coming back, just in case. That seems awfully pessimistic, somehow, but Mom usually has the right of it, Dad says, and that it's a good habit to get into.

I have to go over my list of what to pack too, since that's part of the project, that we think through what we'll need and be sure to pack it, just enough, not too much, and that everything is in top operating order, and packed to be as easy to carry as possible, since we each carry our own field packs, of course. We bring our own stuff, nothing's provided, though the leader of the group goes through it before we leave to be sure we've not forgotten something essential. Dad says that's really important; hate to forget to pack the parachutes if we are going to jump out of a plane, since the teachers might not think that was a good enough reason not to follow the order to jump!

I think he was joking, but I'm not totally sure. Sometimes it's hard to tell with Dad; Mom says his sense of humor is as dry as the Arizona desert he came from. He deals with the lessons and the Practicums and the Internships and Contracts and all the rest, but you can tell he's not totally happy with any of it. Well, Mom always shakes her head at him and tells him, "it's all part and parcel, love," and he always moans and groans, but then hugs her real tight and laughs and tells her he guesses it's worth it, that SHE'S worth it.

We get to go practice some of what we've been learning in the classroom, and we've been told it will involve physical skills, self defence, map reading, languages, math (uhgh!), coordination, planning, working as a team, and as always, following orders and studying the roles of each member of the training team. There's other more technical stuff, too, equipment, tools, that sort of thing. It's with a different set of teachers than I've been with before, and the primary teacher, well no one here has worked with him before at all, and that's always a little worrysome, you know. If things go all pear-shaped ***

{Peter frowned to hear that particular East End phrase, one Caeide had learned from him and obviously taken back to her family; {"just what'll this field trip involve?"} he wondered, concerned, even though he'd never met this girl or her brother. Still, somehow, being Caeide's kin, her baby brother and sister, it was somehow like he had a family connection, whether he wanted it or not. He refused, as always, to consider whether he indeed 'wanted it, or not'. He forgot sometimes, til he had a sharp reminder like this, that twelve, thirteen, those were adults, or near enough, not children, and their field trips could be more like the missions he and the team were sent on; he didn't much like that thought, never had, but it wasn't like he had any say. Sounded to him like he and their father had that in common.}

***it's easier to deal with when you have people you know and can trust and know how they think, that sort of thing. Mom reminded me that 'easier' doesn't teach you how to adjust and think on your feet, though, that you can't always pick and choose your circumstances and your traveling companions. Oh, well, we'll manage.

My twin brother Douglas is coming with us, so that will help; we make a pretty good team of our own, and he keeps me from losing my temper, well, as best he can. He sighs and says that's a full time job, and he'll be more than glad when I Bond so someone else can handle that! I'll most likely not do that at least til I finish my Internship, though, though there have been a few exceptions in the family.

We have to make a full report to the head of our family, the Grandmother, when we get back, and get her comments, and then she decides on the next steps of our schooling. I know eventually Douglas will be studying to be a doctor, I haven't decided yet; Grandmother says that by the end of the Practicums I'll have a better idea. I'm not sure when we'll get back, but I'll write you and let you know how it went. 

It was a good visit with Meg, and it turned into a bit of a celebration at the end. Her guy, Rodney, had gotten hurt on a job, and it took awhile for him to mend; his friends, the guys he worked with had to do a couple of jobs without him, and Rodney really worried about letting them down, though it wasn't his fault he got hurt. Not only that, the company his boss works for keeps making nasty threats about what happens, to all of them, if they can't handle a job because one or more of them is hurt. I think they are right b*****ds, myself!***

The guys snickered. Newkirk, knowing rather more than some of the others about Meg's fella and his friends, knew what Coura was saying, and agreed with her; for the 'bosses' to make threats because a bloke got hurt carrying out their orders, their missions, yes, that made them right bastards in his mind, too! He and Goniff had talked a bit when Garrison's team had been in camp, and he knew about the deal they'd made, and the problems they had with the brass. The other members of the command team knew 'Rodney' and his friends also, and the kinds of jobs they took on, and agreed too with Coura's opinion of the bosses. Schultz nodded, too, in sympathy; he knew how unreasonable the big shots could get! Though, that was probably not a word a little girl should be using! He hoped her mother had not read the letter and washed her mouth out with soap. Though probably not, since her mother would probably have made her write the letter all over, leaving out that word!}

***Like any of them would try to get hurt on purpose! Dad says the big shots have been sitting behind a desk for so long, some of them have never even actually been out on a job, they don't know what it feels like! He says sometime maybe someone should show them, but Mom told him not to worry, she though Meg might take care of that if they got too nasty with the guys. She'd probably do it too! Sometimes, Meg says, the guys didn't even tell the others they've BEEN hurt, for fear of having to skip a job and getting everyone in trouble.

Meg tries to keep an eye on them, to spot any injuries that need taking care of. She's kinda adopted them all, I think; Rodney thinks of them as his brothers, so she does too. Mom and Dad must too; when they were making the lists for gift packages, the guys' names were right there with my brothers and sisters, my grandmother and everyone else! 

Rodney tends to be a worrier; Meg says that's because he has a kind heart as well as a brave one. Meg had been really worried over him, too, cause this last hurt was a pretty big one, but he's what Mom calls resilient. When I asked what that meant, Meg laughed and said that means he bounces good, but then she frowned over at him and touched him real easy on the side of his face where he still has some bruises, and said, sort of soft like, "but I wish you'd stop putting it to the test, love!" He just grinned and laughed at her, but didn't seem to mind the touching part, in fact, I think it made him happy. It makes me happy just to see them together, they just LIKE each other so much, if you know what I mean, not just the lovey-dovey stuff, but all the rest too.***

The guys remembered when Meg and 'Rodney', known to most as 'Goniff', had been there down in the tunnels after rescuing members of the command team; they smiled as they recalled the two sitting on the floor, Goniff sitting behind, her tucked between his legs, him encircling the redhead, her perfectly contented and at ease in his arms, him both giving and receiving warmth and comfort in return. Yes, they knew what Coura was saying, and they smiled at the memory. Kind heart, and a brave one? Well, he'd decked the Colonel, flat out, and considering their size difference, the Colonel being at least a head or more taller, that took guts, even if he had had the element of surprise, the Colonel never thinking the little Englishman would round on him for what he said about Meg and her sister. They had all decided to ignore any other reasons Goniff might have had for punching the Colonel; that was best, they had each decided, without any discussion at all.}

***On the last night of my visit, the doctor said Rodney was well enough, he could go with us, so we went out to the pub in town, and we all sat at a big round table, me and Katy, Ciena, Meg and Rodney and his friends, and his boss's sister, and they all laughed and told stories and jokes. It was really nice, but then this guy, Kevin, that the guys work for sometimes, came in with his sister and a couple of their friends, and I thought there might be trouble for awhile. Kevin's sister, Julie, came over and wanted all of us girls to go join them, and made some silly comment about wanting us to come meet some 'nice' guys, as if the guys we were with, including Meg's Rodney, weren't so 'nice.' She didn't even LOOK at any of the guys, just ignored them!

Meg and Katy took a really deep breath, got real quiet, and the room seemed really chilly all of a sudden, which usually means it's time to get under the table or head for the hills, both of them having really hot tempers, (though I'm told I've the worst of all of us, but I'm not sure that's true), but Ciena made sure there wasn't any trouble. She's supposedly the coolest natured of us all, but Dad says that's a little like saying a forest fire is cooler than an erupting volcano, the difference doesn't really matter too much to the person standing in the middle of all that heat! I didn't hear much of what she told Julie, she was talking real low, but I heard at least one of the 'not supposed to say in public' words, and something about telling her brother that Meg and Katy were both taken, and he needed to get just get the (BIG bad word!) over it and stop crowding someone else's fences.***

Newkirk frowned at that. {"Not that it's any of me business if some other bloke fancies her, if it'd be a good matchup; not like I've any say, or anything else to do with it. 'er being 'taken', though, wonder if that means there IS someone she's settled on, someone other than this Kevin who seems to be making a try for 'imself."} he told himself, scolding himself for feeling a bit lonesome at the thought. He'd never put any stock in what the Clan had said, that she'd bonded to him that year, not really, never put in real stock in it. Hardly ever even gave it a thought, no, not HIM!

***Julie jumped back and her eyes got real big, and Ciena and the sister of Rodney's friend went over to the table for a little while to keep things calm. Ciena had me go to the piano and play and sing for a bit, and I did, then I did what she told me to do special, play and sing one of the newer song Meg had written. It's real pretty, and soft and slow, about two people dancing in the dark and it's like the rest of the world just disappears, and Meg and Rodney got up and danced on the little dance floor, though I wasn't sure he was really up to that yet, but it was a really, really slow song, so it was okay. He had his arms around her waist, she had hers around his neck, their heads right next to each other, and there just wasn't any space between them at all, hardly anywhere. I thought it was beautiful, the way they danced, but I heard some people saying it wasn't decent, that some things belonged in a bedroom, not on a dance floor. I just think they were jealous because no one wanted to dance with them like that! Besides, if it was in a bedroom, you wouldn't get to see how nice they moved together. That is, of course, unless they invited you to join them, I guess.*** 

Eyebrows went up at that statement. 

***Julie's brother was one of the ones so upset about the dance, but then he'd been upset at the rest of us girls not coming to sit with him and his friends either. Katy says that for some reason, he is concerned about our needing to make 'better choices', though she has never understood why he thought it was any of his concern, or why his notions of 'better' should be more important than our notion of 'better'.

She and Meg still try to be nice to him; they've each worked for him at one time or another, and Ciena is working for him now, and they say they really like him in a lot of ways, but sometimes they just want to thump him upside the head really hard, like when he tries to interfere in their private lives. He really gave Katy a hard time for the longest, til she finally just threw up her hands and told him a few hard facts, and while he was really upset with her and yelled, kept saying things like 'wasting her life' and 'expected her to have better judgement' and things like that, he seemed to back off, but now he seems to have started up with fussing at Meg. He really doesn't approve of her being with Rodney; he was preaching at Mom about it and she just sighed and said, "here we go again!".

I don't understand, really; he's worked with Rodney, at least Rodney's team has worked for him, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with Rodney himself, not anymore, anyway; he just doesn't like the idea of Meg being WITH Rodney, and I overheard him telling her that he'd have thought she learned a lesson from Katy about making foolish choices, and I though she was going to HIT him!

Problem is, I don't think he understands that Katy and Meg don't have the same personalities, the same level of what Mom calls, "tolerating fools", if Katy is about a 7 on that scale, being pretty good at it, Meg is about a 3 at best, so I can't see that going well. Dad teased and said "the saying is tolerating fools GLADLY," and Mom just snorted at him, and said "that's asking WAY too much! We're Clan, not Little Sisters of Mercy!"

Well, they must like him anyway, in spite of his being so silly about some things; at least I've never heard them mention him in connection with that 'shallow grave on the hillside' that Mom uses as a threat when some Outlander crosses the line, (at least not yet, though he may be pushing it with Meg!) and I've actually been on that hillside, and I know there's room for quite a few more up there, even if there are markers showing that at least eight or nine spaces have been reserved, but those don't have HIS name on them, so I guess he's safe for right now. Though I have wondered about those reserved spaces that DO have names on them, wondering what the story is behind each of them. Maybe I'll find out once they aren't empty anymore.***

Eyebrows were getting a real workout today, and a few jaws dropped in addition.

***Ciena says it was a shame he had to act that way; that he's really an interesting guy, and has a lot of good points, and he doesn't just sit behind a desk and give orders, like a lot of the bigshots do, but actually goes out and does stuff, real stuff, but he's awfully 'uptight', really straightlaced. It's kinda funny, since he's from the same big town as both Rodney and Mr Eastender, the teacher I told you about, and while both of them are a little bit, well maybe the word is 'shy', maybe just a little 'conservative' about some things, but certainly not nearly so much as Kevin is.*** 

LeBeau and Kinch looked at Newkirk, with wide eyes, and Louie's jaw actually dropped. "Shy?" Louie asked. Kinch followed with, "Conservative?" and Peter blushed, and replied with a grimace, scratching the back of his ear with one long finger, "well, only in comparison, so to speak." They frowned and twisted up their faces in disbelief, trying to picture those two words in connection with either Newkirk or Goniff, ('cheeky', 'outrageous', perhaps, those they could have accepted easier), but settled back to let Carter continue.

***Meg grinned and gave this really low chuckle deep in her throat, and said that Rodney, anyway, was getting over all that very nicely, right quickly too, and thankfully so. Mom says part of it might be that while they are all three from the same big town, Kevin is from the fancy part of town, and the other guys aren't, so they grew up to be more flexible in their thinking than he did, so to speak. Anyway, I thought he was kinda cute, in a very upright, ready to salute at a moment's notice, and expecting a salute in return furthermore, very stiff-upper-lipped manner,***

"Oh, bloody hell, he's a bleeding officer!" moaned Newkirk, who then took a fast apprehensive look at his commanding officer lounging in the door to his office, "uh, sorry, no offence intended, sir!" with a rather sickly smile. Hogan nodded to him, "none taken, Corporal," though with a frown that made Newkirk not so sure that was the case. Schultz looked at Newkirk in agreement; he didn't know if he'd want any of his female relatives taking up with an officer either. Though, surely she wasn't serious; after all, she was just a little girl.}

***and Ciena says she thinks so too, but that all that proper upbringing and training might prove too much for any one of us to overcome; we are thinking of forming a partnership to take on the job together. My brother Ian, he's Ciena's twin, shook his head at us and said, "Well, don't look to me for help; you two are on your own, he's not my type, I prefer blonds!" And my twin brother just stared and says he's not ready to think about anything like that; well, the boys in our family do grow up at a much slower pace than the girls. The boys tend to be only two or three years ahead of the Outlander boys of the same age; while us girls, we are more like five or six years ahead of the Outlander girls.

We didn't get upset with them; in fact, we hadn't intended them to be in the partnership anyway; we think Kevin would really panic at that. Did I mention he is really, really conservative?? I think if Ian so much as winked at him, he'd pass out! So silly! Still, Ciena and I think that together we should be able to do something about moving that poker that's up his back somewhere more useful, and teaching him a more appropriate kind of salute too.***

Kinch, whose eyes had kept getting bigger and bigger, finally choked on his coffee, strangling, having to have Carter pound him on the back, which delayed the further reading of the letter. When he'd recovered, he swallowed deep and in a ragged voice told Newkirk, "I'm beginning to see what you mean by the 'in comparison' bit," while Newkirk only grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "see, I told you so." Louie was now giggling helplessly, his shoulders trembling. Carter just looked confused. Schultz's eyes were now huge; surely I misunderstood that whole last bit; my English is just not so good!'

***He's a bit older than us, well, quite a bit actually, closer to twice the usual age difference in our family; Rodney is twelve or thirteen years older than Meg, about the same difference as Dad and Mom, which is pretty typical in our family, though Meg and Rodney Bonded at a later age than is usual. I mean, Meg is almost twenty! Well, the war and all, you know. We don't tend to much less of an age gap, except under very special circumstances. Mom says that's a good age difference, that we'll all get enough experience in housebreaking and weaning soon enough when the babies start coming, no sense having to start out with the task with a partner before the babes are even a glimmer in the eye yet.

Well, she should know, she Bonded at the end of her Internship year, had my oldest brother Michael when she was fourteen and Dad was twenty-six. She says he was stubborn and prideful, resisted the Bonding because of her age, and it took a lot of convincing to make him change his mind. Well, stubborn and prideful seems to be typical of the men we Bond with, but she says she's glad he's not as stubborn as some, otherwise she'd still be washing out diapers for years to come, instead of being maybe finished with that for good! I mean, there's eight of us, you know, even though we do have two sets of twins. Though, I have to wonder, Mom's been making those salt crisps again almost twice a week, and I've been told she usually only gets a craving for those when. . . Oh, well, maybe not, but it'd be kinda neat NOT to be the youngest anymore!***

Newkirk let out another quiet moan. He didn't know if the entertainment value of these letters was worth the added grey hairs he found afterwards. He looked around to see the guys trying to do the math, then shaking their heads thinking they'd added wrong, or that she'd miswritten that bit. Hopefully they'd missed that mild scolding intended for him! That thought was quickly abandoned when the letter continued . . .}

***Kevin is maybe twenty years older than Ciena, maybe a bit more; she's eighteen, and I'm almost thirteen. We agreed I should probably try to get my Internship year over with before we really make a go for it, though there have been exceptions to that in the past; I know Mom DECIDED on Dad long before she turned thirteen, even if she waited til then to start convincing him, and THAT took months!. Still, we both think Kevin has considerable potential, if we can just get him over that pompous attitude and that wide conservative streak. We aren't sure how we'll manage that, yet; it's a bit of a challenge, and we'll have to think on it. Ciena used the term, "strategic double-teaming" and our Dad just about spit his coffee all over the table, and Mom scolded him for it. Dad can be a bit conservative too sometimes.***

{"That's alright,"} thought Newkirk, with a rueful look around the barracks, {"after this, I'm thinking we'll need to scrub the table AND the floor from all the coffee that just landed there after that last little bit. 'Strategic double-teaming', indeed!" "Make a note to self; do not let Andrew read Coura's letters out loud while everyone is drinking coffee!"} He himself had almost swallowed his lit cigarette! He tried to put the possibilities, the vision out of his head, and for now was successful. He had the feeling his brain would be revisiting the issue later though. He'd managed to yank his deck of cards out of the way of the deluge and just felt himself lucky no one had been standing directly behind him or right in front of him at the time. He figured it out in his head, {'This officer bloke's a few years older than me,'} and realized he'd been quite right with not wanting to take on Coura's internship. {'Now I'm bloody sure I'd 'ave not survived it! And I was all put out by the twelve years between Caeide and me; I'm not sure that supposed bonding that took place would protect me from Coura, now, either, not after this letter. Wonder if I'd 'ave come up against some 'strategic double-teaming', Caeide and Coura joining up in a partnership of their own,"} and his 'conservative and shy' mind turned to jelly at the thought. Schultz just looked bewildered, and shrugged his shoulders, {'no, my English is just not good enough for this.'} He turned to ask Newkirk what she'd meant, but the absorbed look on the Englander's face, almost as if someone had just hit him in the head with a board, made him change his mind. {'No matter, I'll ask Carter or LeBeau later,"} he promised himself.

***In the end, though, Dad just groaned at us, shook his head, and muttered something about how 'if not genetic diversity, at least a little geographical diversity' would be nice, and how he'd thought that by NOT sending his last two daughters to that particular big town that there might have still been a possibility; that though he favored the lads the older girls had picked out, and had nothing to say against either of them, but still . . . all FOUR of his daughters?! Mom just laughed at him, reminded him that they hadn't sent Meg there either, fate just caught up with her. Something about this generation just having a propensity for certain types, even if this latest one was from a rather far-fetched branch of that particular tree! He gave her a questioning look, and she gave him one of her special smiles that she only gives him, and went to sit across his lap, facing him; "No, love, I've never had that particular weakness; I'm most contented with my own weakness!" and then they got all quiet and cuddly, and he started breathing funny and Mom started making those little noises in the back of her throat that she only makes around him, and we all knew it was time for us to leave, quietly and quickly. After all, they hadn't invited us either. 

Anyway, Andrew, I have to leave in the morning, and will write when I get back. My prayers are with you and your friends, as always, and I look forward to your next letter.

Coura**

 

"LeBeau, please, I did not understand. What is all of this about 'pokers' and 'saluting'? What is this 'double-teaming' she spoke of?" Schultz asked, and Louie opened his mouth, looked around at the others, and especially at Carter staring at him obviously waiting to hear the answer too, and lied through his teeth, "I'm sorry, Schultzie, I have no idea," while Newkirk tried, unsuccessfully to keep from laughing his head off.}


End file.
